Leg 4 - Tucson, AZ to El Paso, TX

Left Tucson at 6:10 am. The temperature when I left was a nice 67 degrees and I dressed for it. What was interesting was the ride out of Tucson goes up in altitude. Turns out the high desert gets chilly at night and only warms up with the late morning sun. What was a nice comfortable 67 quickly turned into a chilly 50 degrees.

Took this photo outside the motel this morning before I left:

A couple hours later I stopped in a tiny town to gas up. At the station I asked the attendant for a breakfast spot recommendation. He said Grandma D's about 3 minutes down the frontage road served up a nice breakfast. He was right as I was loved up by the food and the waitress.

The winds were a 10 - 15 mph tail wind right up until El Paso, there they turned into a 20 mph crosswind with 30 mph gusts. I got great gas mileage with the tail winds. I had planned to ride to Carlsbad Caverns but stopped into a Chili's in El Paso to wait out the winds. While at Chili's I checked the wind forecast.

My plan was to spend a couple of days exploring Carlsbad Caverns but I put a kibosh on those plans when I saw the following forecast for the area.

The predicted winds were a bit over my comfort limit, especially when the gusts could be a bit higher.

One thing about a motorcycle trip of this length is you have to be flexible.

The south west is one of two areas where winds present a problem at this time of year. There is a web site that has wind predictions: http://www.intellicast.com/National/Wind/WINDcast.aspx?region=elp. The following is a prediction taken from the site for Sun, May 11th. Notice the south west and south central has the most severe winds this time of year along with North Dakota which I won't need to worry about for awhile.

Once I get out of the south west I will be less hypersensitive about winds.

Interesting to note is the central US, especially Kansas in this graphic. Notice the high winds coming up from the south meeting the high winds coming down from the north. Perfect circumstances for tornados.

Waited out the winds at Chili's for a couple of hours. The waiter suggested I get back on I 10 East and stop at the east end of El Paso for a motel. 40 minutes later I checked into a Holiday Inn Express to treat myself to a nice room. The place has an indoor pool, a jacuzzi and serves a complimentary breakfast at 7 am. I plan on leaving earlier but the desk clerk said there would be coffee, bagels and fruit available.

Overall 328 miles and 9 1/2 hours including the 2 1/2 hour wait at Chili's.